Is BioShock Infinite Really For Everyone - Or Just For Gamers? | HP Review

So complete and overwhelming has the praise for BioShock been, in fact, that anyone with a passing interest in video games or gaming culture knows that they will have to play this game, sooner or later.

But… what about everyone else?

Is BioShock Infinite really for everyone - even those who don't, generally, play games?

The praise for BioShock certainly proves that it is only for gamers. "Gamers" as in the crew that hangs around GameStop and reads IGN religiously. There's nothing good or great about BioShock Infinite. It's one of the shallowest games I've ever played and yet it is considered a masterpiece by the "Gamer" masses. This casualized gaming crowd is far more damaging than your mother playing FarmVille. Be warned.

Well first of all I disagree with you entirely as I think BioShock Infinite was incredibly well done, certainly in comparison to the yearly watered down shovelware we see all too much of these days.

Secondly, why did you set up a new account just to bash a critically acclaimed game? If you're going to do that then at least have the balls to use your original account, maybe your argument then would have some credibility to it.

I'm not entirely sure what this argument is supposed to mean, but I have played hundreds of games. BioShock: Infinite is on the level of Z-grade, mindless blockbuster video games with more of an effort placed on cultural brainwashing (marketing, reviews, viral message board postings) than any actual ideas. It's Call of Duty. It's Uncharted. It's Halo. It's Mass Effect. It's Assassin's Creed. A petty, mindless first person shooter with nothing to say and nothing to contribute to gaming. It has tricked millions into thinking they have played something significant by waving political -isms and twist endings in their face, glossing it with graphical fidelity. It's a marketing concoction for those who do not enjoy video games as a medium with its own merits, but rather one that caters and flatters its audience by distilling challenge and providing a story with "thrills" and "chills" and no substance. It's Michael Bay, Quentin Tarantino, Stephen Spielberg, Stephen King, Stephanie Meyer, Radiohead, David Fincher, and any other hack you can name in popular media profiting off of marketed schlock.

I think Bioshock 1 was better overall but Infinite was still Mind blowing. The beautiful graphics, design and story all worth a whole page for just praising. the gameplay although was perfect for what it is felt little off somehow and have changed a little bit from the original bioshock which was a downgrade imo. also I really though the enemies needed to be tuned down a bit and try to be more intense. the police aren't that interesting and they are just like any other game .. I miss the crazy people in the original.. when you run into some of them don't kill them, just observe their behavior and take photos.

I have a friend who is having a hard time staying interested in Bioshock: Infinite. Though he loved the original, he finds this one boring and typical. I have another friend who started messaging me out of the blue about how great she thinks it is. Both are gamers. No game is for everyone.

I'm afraid I have been stung by hype such as this review one too many times lately. Anything with any emphasis on story is held up as a classic, despite the fact that the gameplay will still subscribe rigidly to accepted formula (see: Tomb Raider). If you want to make a proper game look at XCOM. Want to tell an interactive story, look at Heavy Rain. Want to mix the two, look at Mass Effect. I havent played it yet, true, but from this review I get the sense that Infinite isnt really doing any of the above and is instead going the derivative Tomb Raider approach.

"If you want to make a proper game look at XCOM. Want to tell an interactive story, look at Heavy Rain. Want to mix the two, look at Mass Effect."

You can't make blanket statements like that. You're doing the same thing this article, or at least the title of it, is doing. Defining what makes a good game and what makes a gamer is a waste of time. I know one gamer who loves Bioshock: Infinite, and another one who's sorry he bought it because he's so bored by it, even though he loved the first Bioshock.

I enjoy XCOM, but your idea of a "proper game" isn't necessarily someone else's. I bought the ME Trilogy, and traded it in about a third of the way through ME2. Cool story with stale gameplay in my opinion, which has been my impression of all the Bioware games I've played.

There are different levels/degrees to masterpieces (no pun intended). This game is a Masterpiece, however it "IS" a flawed gem, Not a shining Jewel. One could argue the Middle is too Shooter heavy, Superflous even, with limited amount options to go about it. However With that Said there is No denying that on a Conceptual and Thematic level this game achieves a very High Stature, one that of Icon.